Gender-Responsive Digital Transformation: Submission for WSIS+20 Review

As the WSIS+20 review process unfolds, this submission presents critical recommendations to ensure gender equality becomes central to digital transformation processes globally. Despite twenty years of WSIS implementation, the gender digital divide persists and is widening in many contexts. As highlighted in the UNCTAD Discussion Note for WSIS+20 (UNCTAD/DTL/STICT/2023/4), digital transformations have not been inclusive or equitable, with women and girls systematically disadvantaged across multiple dimensions. This growing divide represents not just a failure to achieve equality, but also a significant missed opportunity for economic development, innovation, and social progress, particularly for developing economies. New technologies are frequently reproducing or amplifying existing inequalities rather than resolving them.

The WSIS+20 review offers a crucial opportunity to transform the WSIS framework from gender-neutral to gender-transformative, addressing structural barriers to women’s full digital inclusion. We propose concrete, actionable recommendations for embedding gender equality throughout existing WSIS Action Lines, while simultaneously establishing a dedicated “Gender Action Line” to ensure sustained attention, resources, and accountability for gender-responsive digital transformation that can unlock economic potential in developing regions.